Jackknife
by Joseph Howler
Summary: Set after "Unholy Alliance." Slightly AU.   Someone-or something- is hunting down and killing Visitors
1. Prologue

Prologue

I hate them.

This rock had enough crap on it without the lizards. People were content thinking they were the best life forms of life in this universe.

Besides, smugglers could get away with more before Lady Scales showed up. We'd just mastered getting past satellites before their reaving ships added another obstacle. And with them in the spotlight, our chances of being welcomed here just shrunk to impossible.

I keep this in mind as I jam my knife into this lizard. I can't smell it through my helmet, but my sensors tell me he's a reptile.

The tell-tale scales confirm this as I cut the skin off half this _things_ face.

This one had tried taking civvies in an ally. He looked left and right for witnesses, but he didn't bother looking up; and when he did, I put a round between his eyes. Mindless vermin.

After I skin that abomination, I grab my bag and pull out some nails. I'm thinking of somewhere public to put him.

I want the scales to know that I know the truth. And I'm coming for them. I'm coming for Anna.

And she'll die on my blade.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Erica's cell phone rang. The caller ID confirmed it was Chris.

"Hello?"

"Erica? We've got a homicide, possible connection to Fifth Column. We found him in Central Park and . . . well you'll have to see the body to believe it."

Erica crossed the police tape blocking the crime scene. News vans and reporters were already filing in.

"What happened?"

Chris Bolling, Erica's new partner and old friend, looked up from his coffee. "A couple of kids went out for a stroll and late night necking. They sat on a bench and saw . . ." He pointed at a large oak swarming with police and crime scene investigators.

The oak had a body nailed to the trunk. The arms were stretched above the head, with spikes driven through the palms and wrists. But Erica's attention was drawn to the head. The right half of the head had the face of a human man and the left side was a scaly, reptilian thing with thin lips, silver eyes, and long, nightmarish teeth.

Erica had seen a similar face before. _Is Eli going after Visitors only now? It's about time._ "What ties this body to Fifth Column?"

"Whoever did this, they cut a 'V' into his cheek, the body was put somewhere where people could see it, just like the murdered Peace Ambassadors," Erica recalled that case all too well, "and they used weapons that don't match anything we have record of."

Erica was curious. "What do you mean?"

Chris was as in the dark as the rest of the investigators. "I mean that the hole in his head doesn't match anything we know of."

Anna allowed Marcus in. "My Queen, Agent Wilkes failed to report with the test subjects you requested."

Anna did not allow the emotion of worry to show. "But you have found him."

Marcus continued. "The humans found his body. The left half of his face was skinned."

The discovery of an intact visitor body was one of several things that could undo all of Anna's plans. If the humans saw what the Visitors really looked like, Anna's power would be weakened severely. And the humans could analyze and replicate cells, giving them a chance at finding a biological weakness in the Visitors.

Anna stood up and stared Marcus straight in the eye. "Destroy the body and eliminate whoever killed him."

Marcus inclined his head. "It will be done, my Queen."

"And you're sure that no one from Fifth Column killed him?" Father Jack asked Erica.

"The weapon that killed this V left burn marks that don't match anything on Earth. And this isn't Cohn's style," Erica replied.

"So, there's a rogue killer, with high-grade weapons, who hates the lizards as much as we do?" Hobbes asked. "Am I the only one thinking 'new recruit'?"

Erica hated Hobbes' attitude at times, and this was one of them. "There's another problem before we let this guy into Fifth Column." Erica pulled out a copy of an anonymous witness report. "Someone saw what happened to this V. They say that the guy who killed this Visitor wasn't human."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

Erica pulled out a copy of a police report. "A 911 call was made last night. The witness claims that the dead V was in an ally across from her apartment." She skimmed down to the call. "She says that what killed him was 'a light that looked like a bullet. Like something from a science fiction film.' And the killer allegedly jumped down four stories above the body, landed upright, took the body, and walked away just fine."

"Are we really going to believe some crazy bint who says that another alien killed a Visitor? That wouldn't be possible." Hobbes objected.

"Visitors can leap great distances without too much damage to themselves." Ryan replied. "This killer might be another Visitor from a radical faction."

"Visitor or not, we need to find out more about him." Erica said decisively. "In the meantime, I figure that Anna will want the body of the V destroyed."

They set up an observation point across from the morgue that night. Erica peered through her binoculars at the dark building that housed a possible clue to the defeat of the visitors. _And what do they want with Tyler?_

Hobbes was loading a semi-auto pistol and attaching a silencer to the barrel. Ryan was also watching the building. Father Jack opted to stay at the church and clean up the vandalization that happened after the murdered Peace Ambassadors.

After half an hour, Erica spotted a Visitor operative leaping across the roof to the morgue with single minded determination.

But before the V could enter the building, a dark shape darted at it. Erica caught a few glimpses of metal as the dark form ran the Visitor through the heart.

Erica silently signaled Hobbes and Ryan to the things location. They focused their attention to a tall, bipedal creature in a mix of armor made of metal and an odd black material as it skinned half of the cadaver's face and carved a _V_ shape in the forehead, a diagonal slash on either side of the face.

But when a Visitor Tracker made its presence known, the things knife began to glow with white energy. Faster than Erica could blink, the creature had thrown its bright knife into the second V's leg and had pulled out a short metal sword from a scabbard on its back. A second curved blade, identical to the one it held in its hand, was also strapped onto its back. And in a blur, the creature beheaded the Visitor, the metal as dark as the night around it.

The thing pulled its knife from the V's leg, the energy around the blade dissipated. The energy around the blade, though, reappeared just before the armored creature cut through a metal pole at an angle, skinned the head, and impaled it on the pole.

"What is that thing?" Hobbes gasped in astonishment. Erica turned to silence him, but it was too late. A dull flash of light slammed itself into Hobbes's chest.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hobbes collapsed to the ground. Erica and Ryan ducked as the thing in the armor fired a brighter flash of light at the place Ryan was previously standing at.

Erica put two fingers to Hobbes's neck and found a steady pulse. He was alive; or was for now. _What was that thing?_

Erica risked another peek at the morgue roof. The creature wasn't there anymore. A second after noting that, a dark shadow blocked her view. The creature was standing in front of her.

Erica jumped back, pulling out her gun and crying "FBI!" But the thing did not care. It kept advancing towards Erica.

"Put your hands up and kneel on the ground now! Or I'll shoot!" Erica shouted hoping to make it back down. It took two steps before Erica pulled the trigger, aiming for the creature's breastplate. A few sparks and a _ping_ sounded as the bullet ricocheted off the metal plate.

Ryan leapt at the armored thing, hoping to bring it down. They rolled on the gravel on the rooftop, each trying to gain advantage over the other. The thing had stabilized itself on top of Ryan before he kicked it back. They ran at each other, grappling as they engaged. Ryan grabbed both of its hands, but the creature rammed its helmeted forehead into Ryan's face. Ryan released his grip on the thing and it immediately slashed at his throat with its claws. _Claws?_

Erica fired at the creature again, the bullet failing to penetrate one of the black armor pieces. The creature just turned to look at her, and then ran off the rooftop.

Erica heard a scraping sound and looked down to the edge where the thing had jumped off. A blade had popped out of each gauntlet and the thing was using them to slow its descent down the building, dust and the occasional spark filling the air in its wake. It stopped at the bottom where a black motorcycle waited for its rider.

Erica soon heard police sirens approaching. Hobbes and Ryan were both injured and they couldn't afford to be found at a crime scene.

The hunt for the mystery killer would have to be put off for that night.


End file.
